GOP presidential candidate sues to be on Minnesota primary ballot: Here's what you need to know
Editors note: A correction has been made. A previous version of the article stated Ryan Binkley founded a church in 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia. The church was founded in 2014 in Richardson, Texas.
ST. PAUL — On Thursday, the Minnesota Supreme Court heard an expedited petition by longshot GOP presidential candidate Ryan Binkley to be placed on Minnesota's Republican primary ballot.
Not only does Binkley have to overcome the saturated and more established field of fellow candidates, he is also on a time crunch to get his name on the ballot before early voting starts in just a week.
Binkley has fallen short in polling and failed to receive any "first-choice support" in Iowa polls, according to the Des Moines Register.
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Despite his lack of support in numbers, Binkley is still fighting for a spot on the ballot.
The pastor and businessman is focusing on Iowa ahead of the caucuses next week, campaigning on balancing the budget, repairing the healthcare system, and urban education reform.
Here's what you need to know about his efforts to win the GOP nomination.
How to qualify for the Minnesota Republican primary (and why didn't Binkley)?
In December, Republican Party of Minnesota Chair David Hann submitted a list of candidate names to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon to be added to the party's presidential primary ballot. This list included familiar names like former President Donald Trump, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and now dropped-out candidate former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. One name not on that list? Ryan Binkley.
In Minnesota, to qualify for the Republican primary, a candidate must meet one of the following requirements:
Meet the threshold to appear in the first debate at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July. To qualify for this debate, a candidate must have 70,000 individual donors and reach 4% in national polls.
Have held at least one of the following offices: The Presidency, the Vice Presidency, Senator or Congress person, Governor or mayor of city with a population of 250,000 or more.
Binkley does not meet either of these requirements. He told USA Today that his energy won't cease.
"Hopefully (the Minnesota Supreme Court) will just make the decision to let us in," Binkley said. "If not, then we're prepared to take it as far as we need to."
Binkley has made it onto the ballot in 20 states and the District of Columbia, including early primary voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
In 2016, the Minnesota legislature re-established the presidential primary system in a bipartisan bill, signed by then-Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton, moving the state away from a party-run caucus system to the state-administered primary system.
Binkley v. Simon
During oral arguments on Thursday in St. Paul, six of the seven Minnesota Supreme Court justices heard arguments from Binkley's attorney, Erick Kaardal.
Binkley and his attorneys are suing Secretary Simon to add his name to the list of Republican candidates on the GOP primary ballot, despite not meeting the state party's requirements. Kaardal argued that by leaving Binkley's name off the ballot, other candidates are receiving an unfair advantage for the general election by having a chance at the party nomination.
In 2020, Kaardal represented then-presidential candidate Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente in a nearly identical case just before the presidential primary. The court denied Kaardal's petition to add De La Fuente's name to the state's party ballot. However, he still garnered several thousand votes in the general election in November by making his name on the ballot via the nominating petition process.
So, how are the two cases different?
"Didn't we reject this argument in De La Fuente?" Associate Justice Paul Thissen asked Kaardal during oral arguments.
Kaardal told USA Today that the case at hand relies on the argument that the Article II Section I of the Constitution, the Electors Clause, grants the legislature the power to determine how state parties develop their primary systems. He said this holds states and their parties to using the enumerated qualifications in the Constitution (age, birthplace, etc.) to make it on a primary ballot.
Kaardal, a former MN GOP chapter member himself, called the requirements set forth by the state party "crazy qualifications". Chief Justice Natalie Hudson questioned "who determines what are crazy qualifications? Who determines what are reasonable ones?"
Assistant Attorney General Nathan Hartshorn told the court, the parties get to determine those qualifications, and the legislature allows them to.
Hartshorn argued that the Electors Clause doesn't give the state legislature authority to decide how state parties run their primary system, but rather it's their inherent power as a body of government to make these legislative decisions. Therefore, parties can make their own requirements for state ballots.
Binkley is asking for the justices to rule that the 2,000 signatures needed for an independent candidate to be placed on the ballot be applied to major party candidates who do not meet the requirements set by the major state parties.
Hartshorn asked for a speedy decision with opinion to follow to give elections officials time to prepare for early voting starting next week.
Who is Ryan Binkley?
Ryan Binkley is the co-founder and CEO of Generational Equity Group and lead pastor at Create Church based in Texas.
More: Ryan Binkley, Texas business executive, is running for president as a Republican. Who is he?
The 56-year-old announced his bid for the White House in April 2023, running on paving the path for unifying the country and potential bipartisan cooperation on immigration and health care policy.
In 1999, Binkley and his wife Ellie co-founded a location of Create Church in downtown Atlanta. Binkley told USA Today that God called him to run for president.
"It doesn't matter people's different faiths, we're in a cultural moment right now," he said. "My message to everybody is we're all Americans first. Let's treat each other with respect and let's serve each other, and let's focus on those that need the most."
According to FEC filings, Binkley outspent every other candidate in the race in the third quarter, racking up a bill of $7 million in Iowa. Despite this, he has yet to make any headway into the field, barely even showing up on polls ahead of the caucuses.
Linda Hofstadter, a Binkley for President Minnesota volunteer told USA Today that getting to vote for the candidate she wants, even if he's not dominating the polls, is important to her.
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Hofstadter works as an election judge and said Binkley's values as a Christian and proposal to build a wall on the southern border while also making the immigration process easier made her want to vote for him.
"This isn't right," she said. "I believe in freedom of choice and I won't even be able to vote for him."
Hofstadter said that if Binkley isn't on the GOP primary ballot, she would write in his name.
Early voting for the state primary starts on Jan. 19 and ends March 4.
Binkley has yet to campaign in Minnesota.
— Sam Woodward is the Minnesota Elections Reporting Fellow for USA Today. You can reach her at swoodward@gannet.com or on X @woodyreports.
This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Republican presidential candidate Ryan Binkley sues to be on MN ballot
